Google announces investment in Indonesia’s Go-Jek

Google is back investing in ride-hailing companies. The U.S. search firm and China’s Meituan-Dianping are among the tech giants set to invest in Go-Jek, the Indonesia-based rival to Grab and Uber, a source with knowledge of discussions told TechCrunch.

We understand a deal could be completed as soon as next week, though whether Go-Jek announces it is unclear since it has history of not disclosing new investments.

Funding rounds are often complicated and not as clean as they may appear once announced. In Go-Jek’s case, it secured investment from Chinese internet giant Tencent in March last year as an initial tranche of a planned $1.2 billion raise. Existing investors including KKR, Warburg Pincus, Sequoia Capital, Northstar Group, DST Global and NSI Ventures agreed to follow on and Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com joined later in the year, too, but an allocation was left open.

Now that is full and the round is complete with commitments from Google, Temasek and Meituan-Dianping. We don’t have confirmed numbers for those stakes but, as latecomers to the party, they are likely to be fairly small and strategic in nature.

We understand the investment gives Go-Jek a valuation that is a touch above the $3 billion that Tencent agreed to invest at last year.